Experimental effects of an absent crowd on performance and refereeing decisions during Covid-19

Alex Bryson, Peter Dolton, J Reade, Dominik Schreyer and Carl Singleton
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Peter Dolton: University Of Sussex

No 20-04, DoQSS Working Papers from Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London

Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has induced worldwide natural experiments on the effects of crowds. We exploit one of these experiments currently taking place over several countries in almost identical settings: professional football matches played behind closed doors. We find large and statistically significant effects on the number of yellow cards issued by referees. Without a crowd, fewer cards were awarded to the away teams, reducing home advantage. These results have implications for the influence of social pressure and crowds on the neutrality of refereeing decisions.

Keywords: Attendance; Coronavirus; Covid-19; Home Advantage; Natural Experiments; Referee Bias; Social Pressure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B41 B55 C01 C12 C25 C52 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-exp and nep-law
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Experimental Effects of an Absent Crowd on Performances and Refereeing Decisions during COVID-19 (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:qss:dqsswp:2004

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